Chongwu Fortress Walls

Chongwu's fortress walls are one of the best-preserved examples of Ming dynasty coastal military architecture in China. The complete circuit runs approximately 2.4 kilometers around the old town, and much of it is walkable — the broad top of the wall provides a path with views over the densely packed stone buildings inside and the sea beyond. The height of the main sections reaches six to seven meters, and the gate towers and corner bastions preserve their original form.

The grey granite construction gives the walls a gravity that brick fortifications rarely achieve. The stone was quarried locally from the same material that the town's houses were subsequently built with, creating an architectural continuity between the military outer shell and the domestic interior that is visible in the color and texture of everything from the fortress battlements to the front steps of private houses. Walking the circuit takes about forty-five minutes at a steady pace; allow longer for the views and for photography.

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A story
The fortress was built in 1387 on the orders of the Hongwu Emperor — the founding ruler of the Ming dynasty — as part of a systematic defense of the Fujian coastline against wokou pirates who had been raiding the region for decades. The builders used local grey granite throughout, which has given the walls a durability that more ambitious constructions in brick could not match. At the height of the pirate raids in the 16th century, over four thousand soldiers were garrisoned here.

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